Police submit report on Zainab’s rape, murder in Supreme Court

Punjab Police on Thursday submitted its report to Supreme Court over the Kasur tragedy in which seven-year-old Zainab was raped and murdered. Following the discovery of Zainab’s body violent protests erupted in Kasur in which two people were killed.

On Wednesday, Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the case, ordering the Punjab Inspector General of Police to submit a report to the court within 24 hours.

During the hearing of the Al Razi Medical College, Peshawar case, the chief justice expressing condolences over the brutal rape and murder of Zainab, remarked that the head of the entire nation hangs in shame over the heinous incident, which is a matter of embarrassment for the country.

The main parts of the report have been reproduced below:

Zainab goes missing

Zainab’s uncle Muhammad Adnan reported that on January 4 she went missing at 7:00 PM. According to police Zainab along with her cousin, Muhammad Usman went to recite Quran at their aunt’s house at Kot Road. Muhammad Usman reached the house but Zainab did not. Zainab’s aunt presumed that she had gone home but this was not the case. After this, complainant Muhammad Adnan along with his brother started searching for Zainab, but in vain. The complainant informed Rescue 15 at 9:30 PM that he had a strong suspicion that his niece had been abducted by an unknown accused. A case was registered on January 4.

Efforts for recovery

After the registration of the case, the following efforts were made for Zainab’s recovery.

1. Teams headed by SDPOs of City and Sadar Circles, eight SHOs along with their full police station strength were promptly directed to carry out a search operation in the area of suspicion round the clock under the exclusive supervision of SP/Investigation since the minor went missing.

2. Proclamation was made immediately on local cable network.

3. Decoy operation was launched.

4. A large number of suspects were interrogated.

5. A large number of CCTV footages of various cameras installed on nearby roads/streets comprising of long hours of videos were worked out by deputing number of personnel. In the end, this IT team managed to work out video footage of an unidentified suspect carrying Zainab in a remote area of Peru Wala Road, Kasur.

6. The video found was of extremely poor quality due to which the face of the accused could not be identified. However, a request has been moved to PFSA, Lahore for enhancement of video quality.

7. All adjacent under construction houses were checked immediately by the decoy team but unfortunately, the dead body of minor Zainab was found on January 09 in a garbage pile.

8. Postmortem of the deceased girl was carried out by the Women Medical Officer (WMO).

9. DNA samples handed over by WMO has been sent to PFSA for profiling in order to compare it with already generated DNA in such cases.

10. Circumstantial evidence was collected by PFSA experts including picking up of relevant materials, crime scene inspection and photography.

11. Sections 302/201 were incorporated in the case FIR under discussion and case file has been handed over to SI Iftikhar Ahmed, Incharge Homicide Unit and the RPO, Sheikhpura Region, DPO Kasur and SP Investigation will personally supervise the investigation.

12. Hectic efforts are being conducted to ensure early tracking of accused.

The report mentions that upon the recovery of Zainab’s body, a large number of residents of district Kasur became violent and demonstrated. The mob started destroying private and government properties and tried to enter the office of Deputy Commissioner Kasur. The gunmen of DC, Kasur opened fire as a result of which a case has been registered.

A Joint Investigation Team has been constituted by the government of Punjab under the convenorship of Additional IGP Investigation Branch, Abubakar Khudabaksh.

According to the report, 227 new suspects were interrogated and the sketch of the accused was prepared. A house to house search was also carried out with the help of the last crime scene witness. 67 DNA samples have been sent to PFSA. The police have also obtained call data records along with carrying out geofencing of the area. The report also mentions the Rs 10 million reward announced by the Government of Punjab for the informer who would reveal information about the suspect.

In its conclusion, the police report states that no stone will be left unturned to trace out the actual culprits.